WEBVTT - The Raid 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.600 Our story moves from the gaudy lobby of New York's 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:08.520 Trump Tower to the elegant one hundred and seventy seven 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:13.119 year old Barlock Hotel located on the banks of Lake 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:17.360 Zurich in Switzerland. The five star Borlock Hotel is the 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:21.280 type of place you walk in and immediately stand up 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.079 a little straighter. You can expect to find businessmen and 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:30.360 handcrafted suits alongside exquisite women wearing the latest fashion from 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:35.360 Paris in Milan. With its manicured private gardens along Lake Zurich, 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.360 a lobby adorn not just with art, but with nineteenth 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:44.160 century European tapestries, its rooms can run into the thousands 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.640 of dollars a night. It is as much a hotel 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.200 as it is a parade of wealth, power and privilege. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:59.040 Another important fact, the Borlock is the place FIFA executive 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:07.320 stay when they're in down visiting the organization's headquarters. Just 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:09.800 a short ten minutes or so dry from the hotel, 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:14.200 you'll find FIFA House, as the headquarters is called. It 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.800 couldn't be more different than the ritzy Bora Lack Hotel. 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:22.880 A modern steel and glass structure, FIFA House is a fortress. 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.000 It was built two thirds underground, almost as if FIFA 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.920 meant it to be impenetrable, almost as if FIFA had 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.560 something to hide. The headquarters was built on the watch 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.679 of longtime FIFA president sept Bladder, who like to say, 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:45.240 and I quote, places where people make decisions should only 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:51.480 contain indirect light. So why have I taken you on 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:56.120 this architectural tour of Zurich Because this is where that 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.920 two thousand and ten meeting between Chuck Blazer and Age 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.440 from the FBI and the I R S would lead us. 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:14.120 I'm Connor Powell. This is episode two the Raid. On 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:18.000 the morning of May two thousand and fifteen, just as 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.639 the sun was coming up over Zurich, soccer's most powerful 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.680 men were gathered in the Barlock Hotel for a meeting 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:29.280 later that day at FIFA House. Unbeknownst to them, to 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:31.840 New York Times reporters had taken up seats in the 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.720 hotel's lobby, tipped off that something big was about to 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.160 go down. We told the gentleman behind the front desk 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.000 that we were there for a breakfast meeting and wouldn't 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:44.600 be all right if we waited, and he said sure, 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:49.800 that's Sam Borden, a long time sports journalist now with ESPN. 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:53.360 Sam doesn't normally wear a suit, but he told me 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:57.079 he decided that spring morning he should the boar Lock 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.920 he thought was the type of place where men wait 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:04.600 in the lobby should look the part boarding and investigative 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.200 reporter Michael Schmidt, where they're on assignment for The New 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.760 York Times. They knew something important was about to happen, 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.120 something that would rock the cloistered world of international soccer. 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:22.079 Then it began, and about six six am, all of 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:26.400 a sudden, a group of a dozen, maybe eighteen sixteen 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:31.160 eighteen men walk into the lobby. It became very clear 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.160 that something was going to happen. Wearing jeans, dark sweatshirts 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:39.560 and sneakers, this pedestrian mix of Swiss police and American 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.960 FBI agents couldn't have looked more out of place, and 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.600 yet the hotel was now firmly in their control. They 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.520 go to the front desk and they show a whole 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.640 bunch of paperwork to the gentleman behind the front desk. 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.440 Presumably these are arrest warrants. And obviously at this point 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:59.680 there's sort of a commotion in the lobby because there's 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.240 like one, maybe two people working this early morning shift 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.600 for the hotel, and now all of a sudden, there's 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.600 several dozen police officials in the lobby. Schmidt sent a 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.920 tweet to his thousands of followers. It read Swiss law 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.640 enforcement getting room numbers for FIFA executives. They are heading 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:23.040 upstairs to arrest. Schmidt and Borden were recording the initial 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:30.120 moments of the most significant corruption takedown in international sports history, 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.320 and yet it was a surprisingly civilized affair. I'm sitting 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.440 there and I'm just watching the elevator looking to see, Okay, 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.320 when an elevator leaves the lobby, I'll be able to 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.279 tell what floor it goes to by looking at the 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:47.120 numbers above the doors. And at some point the elevator 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.120 starts moving and I see that it's going to I 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.120 think it was either the third of the fourth floor. 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:52.679 So I go up to the third of the fourth 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:58.160 floor and I follow several police officials as they go 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.880 down the hall. You know from existence, would follow them 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.680 and they knock on the door. I was sort of 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:05.760 expecting it to be like something you would see from 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.719 a movie, where these guys would be like in you know, 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.960 uniforms and you know, riot gear and carrying like big 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.640 guns and to sort of kick the door in, And 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.080 it was not like that at all. I remember thinking 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.120 in the moment that if you were sleeping in the 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.560 room next door, I don't know that you would have 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.200 been woken up. Sam Borden went on to describe the 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.920 raid in a way I've never heard a police raid described. 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.599 It was very pleasant, as pleasant as law enforcements demeanor 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.919 might have been. It was a rude awakening for the 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:42.200 seven FIFA officials whose hotel doors received those polite knocks. 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:47.120 These lords of soccer had entered the Barlock hotel expecting 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:51.440 to enjoy the protections that come with great privilege. Now 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.800 they were being marched out in the harsh morning light, 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:59.160 indicted criminals, using whatever they could to shield themselves from 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:03.039 the public's glare. We saw several of those FIFA officials 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:05.640 led from the hotel. I think it was the hotel 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.320 staff trying to protect their appearance, if not their dignity, 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.680 with white hotel sheets. Word of the dawn raids spread 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.560 quickly around the world as newspapers, TV stations, and social 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:22.160 media reported the arrest. Major corruption crackdown going down right now. 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.080 Arrest made around the world this morning was like something 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.320 out of a crime thriller. High ranking officials from FIFA, 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.080 the sports governing body, arrested in an overnight rate in Switzerland, 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:36.360 the result of a sweeping FBI investigation. The US Justice 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.239 Department accuses them of corruption and bribe taking, involving tens 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.599 of millions of dollars. The raid was the culmination of 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.839 a US federal case years in the making, an investigation 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.719 that had largely stalled until the I R s Flip 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:55.520 Chuck Blazer that fateful November day outside Trump Tower in Manhattan. 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.880 The allegations hardly came as a surprise to long time 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.240 FIFA critics, but the fact that it was breaking out 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:08.120 in the open was, in a word, shocking. FIFA had 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:13.480 operated with impunity for decades, and yet as significant as 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.520 these arrests were, the scope of the scandal was only 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:25.800 just coming into focus. Now. You might ask yourself, why 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.320 did it take so long to do something about FIFA 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.120 and its corrupt leadership. Part of the answer is and 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:36.760 how absolutely huge soccer is as a sport, and how 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.000 important it is to the leaders of FIFA's member nations. 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.320 The same leaders who are vying to host big tournaments 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.680 like the World Cup are the ones who would have 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.400 to take enforcement action against FIFA. Let me try to 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:55.480 offer some perspective. Yeah, it's the products ultimate gay. Soccer 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.480 is a popular game if you live in the United States. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.080 It's hard to a's just how popular it is. Some 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:07.800 fans describe it as a religion, or at least as 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:13.440 important as religion, and they're not kidding. Here's a comparison. 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.320 About a hundred and three million people watch the Super 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.320 Bowl in two thousand and eighteen. That same year, some 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.600 three and a half billion people, if you can believe it, 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.080 watch the World Cup tournament, with more than a billion 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.439 alone tuning in for the final match between Croatia and France. 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.680 It will be some concin on the shows and they 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:42.319 say to nights from all the champions of the world. Well, 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.240 it's possible you weren't one of them. It's likely you 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.960 know someone who did, especially if you know someone who 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.080 lives in Europe, Asia, South America, or Africa, pretty much 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.120 the entire rest of the world where soccer is king. 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.400 Imagine then the power one has to oversee a sport 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.959 of that magnitude as you already know. FIFA runs the 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.400 World Cup, along with a host of other related tournaments, 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:13.959 but the organization thinks of itself as something more, almost divine. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.760 But FIFA, it's our responsibility to develop the game for 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:22.200 future generations and to protect its integrity. That's part of 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.559 FIFA's mission statement from a few years ago. You can 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.720 find it on their website, and it's well, absolutely absurd. 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:34.400 Football is the hart and soul of FIFA. It's debatable 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.360 whether soccer the game or the lessons it imparts, or 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:43.080 even a top priority. Money and the making of money 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.079 and the finding ways the stuff that money into offshore 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.400 bank accounts. That seems to be far more important for 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.200 soccer's ruling elite. And here's how the FIFA machine is structured. 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.640 FIFA governs the sport internationally and organizes the Men's and 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.760 Women's World Cup tournaments, which are held be four years. 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.680 FIFA hosts several smaller tournaments as well. Collectively, they bring 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:09.160 in more than four billion dollars in revenue, pretty good 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.320 money for an organization that doesn't run any leagues, just 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.160 a few tournaments every couple of years. FIFA is for 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.760 the most part, an association of countries There are currently 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.880 two hundred and eleven members, which means FIFA is actually 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.520 larger than the United Nations because while the country, like 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.520 the United Kingdom, is part of the u N, Wales, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.560 England and Scotland are all separate members of FIFA and 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:38.120 each has one vote in our democratic system. FIFA is 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:43.160 separated into six regional confederations, each with its own staggering 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.360 history of corruption, but most of our story will focus 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:51.480 on the Big three UEFA, the European Confederation CONKI, CAALF, 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:56.720 the North American one and came Bowl, South America's umbrella organization. 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.240 As the guardians of the global game, it is on 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.520 duty to serve the world of football. At the top 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.640 of FIFA is the President and the Executive Committee. These 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.720 are really the lords of soccer, several of whom in 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.720 two thousand and fifteen were arrested at the Barlock Hotel. 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.640 In theory, they set the vision and craft the strategy 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:21.720 for FIFA and the global soccer community. In reality, for 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.440 the most part, they treat the sport like their own 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:28.880 personal fiefdoms and FIFA like their own private piggy bank. 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.800 And on the long list of crooked soccer officials, Jack 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.400 Warner is a standout. He's the former president of Conka 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.920 caffeine buddy to Chuck Blazer. He also sent that email 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.840 to Blazer you heard about an episode one that caused 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.439 Blazer's meltdown. For years, Warner was one of the sports 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:53.280 most powerful executives and its most corrupt. Warner's story is 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.959 almost unbelievable, and it serves as an illustration of what 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:13.440 FIFA really was and how business really got done. The 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.960 honor guards snapped to attention as the frail South African 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:21.560 anti apartheid leader exited the Gulf Stream jet. It was 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.720 the spring of two thousand and four and Nelson Mandela 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:28.600 was unwell. He struggled to walk down the plan's short 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.960 staircase and then across the tarmac to where a small 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:37.440 podium was waiting. Mandela, the Nobel Prize winning activists, managed 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.000 only a few words, but the excited crowd of politicians 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.640 and locals didn't seem to care as they yelled at 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:48.880 his nickname, my Diba Madba. At eighty five years old, 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.520 Mandela was exhausted. He hadn't slept on the twenty four 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.880 hour flight from South Africa to Trinidad and Tobago. He 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.400 really didn't want to be there, but his country needed 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:05.480 him once again. And for Jack Warner, feva's powerful vice president, 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:11.079 that was leverage. Now. At this time, Mandela hadn't been 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:16.480 traveling anywhere under doctor's orders, but will I insisted, so 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.880 South Africa, for the sake of the World Cup bid, 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:24.080 essentially had doctors to make the trip across the ocean. 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.640 That's journalist Losana Liebird, who's been reporting on Conker Calf 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.120 for more than a decade. South Africa was on the 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.840 cusp of winning the right to host the two thousand 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.520 and ten World Cup, the first African nation to do so. 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.520 Four years earlier, South Africa had been the bookmaker's favorites 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.480 to win the two thousand and six World Cup bid. 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.480 After losing out unexpectedly, the pressure was on their leaders 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:55.800 to deliver Mandel's visit to Trinidad and Tobago was seen 0:13:55.840 --> 0:14:01.040 as key to securing Jack Warner's all important support. He 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.080 was just one of twenty four voters, but Warner was 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:08.640 known as a kingmaker within FIFA. If Mandela could woo 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:13.480 the kg FIFA executive, South Africa would be one very 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.760 crucial step closer to hosting the two thousand and ten 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:21.640 World Cup. It was far from a done deal. As 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:25.360 a member of FIFA's executive committee, Warner had already been 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.240 to Morocco. In Egypt, Warner, along with Chuck Blazer and 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:34.000 other FIFA executives, had been wined, dined, and nearly bribed. 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.880 In Marrakesh, they were given fine China handmade rugs and 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:43.640 offered one million dollars for their votes. While in Cairo, 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:49.120 Warner asked for seven million dollars from the Egyptians. They 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:55.200 turned them down. Instead, the Egyptians organized the fifty car 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.520 motor Kid to the Pyramids of Giza, where the four 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.160 thousand year old Sphinx was fired with speakers and announced 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:07.600 I have waited thousands of years a host of FIFA 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:14.520 World Cup. The stunts didn't work, and here's why Warner 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:18.520 was an ambitious politician. He saw an opportunity at home 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.760 that went beyond money. Bringing the legendary Mandela to Trinidad 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:27.280 and Tobago with Bolster Warner politically in a way money couldn't, 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.760 and also illustrated the extent of his power in FIFA's world. 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:36.000 If Warner said jump, even South Africa's most famous Son 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:43.480 was forced to say how high South Africa's gamble appeared 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.520 to have worked. Once the votes were counted. The two 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:53.080 thousand and ten FIFA Bold Cup will be organized people 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:57.160 South Africa's moment. The country, indeed the continent, was at 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.880 the center of the world. A nation it text to 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.440 everyone said it was Mandela magic that bagged them the tournament. 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.680 To the outside world, it seemed as if Mandela's charm, 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:13.160 personal determination and strength of character had one over Warner, 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:17.640 who along with Blazer, helped secure South Africa's victory. But 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.920 after investigators raided the Barallac Hotel in May of two 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:26.120 thousand and fifteen, an entirely different, darker story emerged. It's 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:30.880 the ten million dollar question. Was this historic moment the 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:34.840 result of a ten million dollar bribe? A defining moment 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.680 in football? The twenty ten World Cup on African soil 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.280 for the first time and attended by Nelson Mandela, the 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:46.560 former president, synonymous with the end of apartheid in South Africa. 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:51.240 Now its legacy is at risk. US prosecutors alleged South 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.080 African football officials paid a ten million dollar bribe to 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.840 secure the rights to host the tournament. Warner wasn't moved 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.200 by Mantella. Warner was bribed. It's emerged the money was 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.600 first transferred to FIFA in Switzerland, then to Trinidadian and 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.680 former FIFA Vice president Jack Warner. The FBI says they 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.399 tried to disguise the bribe. South African officials insisted the 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:18.000 payment made to FIFA was above board and was supposed 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.679 to support the development of soccer among the African diaspora 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.560 in the Caribbean. Here's the South African sports minister at 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.359 the time. The fact that a payment of ten million 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:33.600 rand's u S dollars was made to an approved program 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:39.320 above bot does not equate to bribery. But the money 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.679 accepted by FIFA and then approved for payment by its 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.680 General Secretary Jerham Valc wasn't paid to Conquer CALF or 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:51.080 any other legitimate soccer organization in the Caribbean. Instead, it 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.480 was paid directly to Jack Warner. Here again, as journalist 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.880 Losana Liberd Warna didn't make a habit of Levigini's position 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.600 for the benefit of curry Ben Football or Tronadad and 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:03.800 Tobago football as much as he tried to pay in 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:08.120 that picture. As we've seen our particularly with the investigations 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:12.439 within the US. He leveraged his positioned the suit himself financially. 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.359 Here's the BBC confronting Jack Warner trying to get to 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.919 the bottom of the bribery scandal. He turns with a 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.960 ten million dollars Warner, Where did the ten million dollars 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.560 go to? Can you tell us warm projects? Mr? Warner? 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.679 When confronted, Warner couldn't account for the money, but journalists 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.560 later uncovered documents that showed FIFA's payments went straight into 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.720 accounts controlled by Warner. In Trinidad and Tobago. Nearly five 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.800 billion dollars came through here and there's not a football 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.440 pitching side. Once it was paid to Warner, the money 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:52.080 just disappeared. This type of brazen bribery was common, and 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.200 not only with Warner but throughout FIFA. Our problems here 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:00.720 always went well beyond Jack Warner, and I would say 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:04.639 that the corruption that we saw with Jackuana was really 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:09.000 only a symptom. It was always stage handled in Zurich. 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:11.359 It was set up for him the profit off of 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:15.439 because that's all we are to FIFA really just votes. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.520 The votes like Bird refers to, are of course for 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:24.080 world cup bids. Jack Warner left FIFA in disgrace in 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:26.960 two thousand and eleven, kicked out, as you heard in 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.560 the previous episode, for trying to fix the presidential election 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:34.200 in favor of Mohammed bin Hamm. But Warner's exit didn't 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.600 change much. In fact, his successor at Conker Calf, Jeffrey Webb, 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.760 tried as hard as he could to replicate Warner's predatory ways. 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.800 It's January two thousand and fourteen and the car cynical 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.120 as Hanka Capps, new president, stride to the podium, he 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:08.400 radiates stylish sophistication with perfectly tailored suits and a designer 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.040 watch collection. Jeffrey Webb didn't just shine in the room, 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:16.320 he commanded it. On this night, he was getting honored 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.840 by the United Nations for his work to raise awareness 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:23.159 about HIV AIDS, just one of the many initiatives he 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:25.800 had launched when he took control of Conker Calf the 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.679 North American Soccer Confederation. I have the mindset that you 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:34.639 know what the game can can embark society. That's Webb. 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:39.800 But it was Webb's dual promise of confronting racism and soccer. 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.920 We are not going to to rid racism from from 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.480 our society, but we must read it from from our 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.159 game and of cleaning up corruption, we must move the 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.760 clouds and allow the sunshine in. It's a new Day 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:59.600 for CONCO. That added gravitas and legitimacy to his debonair appearance. 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:04.560 Long before Webb became the head of Conkercalf and a 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.639 FIFA Vice president, he was appointed to its Internal Audit Committee, 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.400 where he had defended Set Bladder against rumors of corruption 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.200 in two thousand and two. Webb builds a reputation as 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.200 a reformer and was even talked about as a successor 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.520 to Bladder by the time he took over Conka Caffe 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.879 in two thousand and twelve. The Cayman Island native embodied 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:29.960 the style and substance that so many FIFA officials before 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.200 him had only pretended to represent. Even with his two 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.879 million dollar a year Conka caff salary, frequent use of 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:42.160 private jets, and love of nightlife, Webb appeared to be 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.879 exactly what soccer needed after Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer's 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.640 scandalous tenure. But not everyone saw Webb as a savior 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:55.600 of global soccer. Certainly not Jose Avila. Avila was one 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:59.159 of soccer's most important dealmakers and the owner of the 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:03.040 sports marketing firm Traffic Group. Jose ah Vila got his 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.399 start as a sports announcer covering Brazilian soccer in the 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.560 nineties seventies. He built a small media empire with TV 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:16.439 stations and newspapers, then went into sports marketing. Traffic Group 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:20.359 came to dominate the lucrative contracts with FIFA's American and 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:25.080 Latin American football confederations. When the man known as the 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:28.439 Boss of Brazilian football first met Jeffrey Webb in London 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.080 in two thousand and twelve, all the sports marketing mogul 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:36.840 saw was another crooked FIFA official, albeit a well dressed one. 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:41.760 If a Vila wanted access to conker cops lucrative regional tournaments, 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:47.679 Webb demanded he pay him a jaw dropping on every 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:52.439 deal he made. Even by FIFA's greedy standards, it was 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.639 a stunning request. A Vila had been paying bribes for 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.240 more than twenty years. He knew he'd have to pay one. 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:03.040 He just hoped to talk Web down a little bit. 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:07.760 A few months later after their initial London meeting, Abilla's 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:11.560 firm wired one million dollars to web. The hands in 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:14.360 the cookie jar might have changed, but they were as 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:22.960 greedy as ever. After his meeting with the FBI and 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:25.600 I R S agents outside of Trump Tower in two 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:29.840 thousand and eleven, Chuck Blazer, Warner's right hand man turned 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:33.679 FBI informant, was asked to do what pretty much every 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:38.040 government snitches asked to do. At some point where a wire, 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:42.480 Blazer had already outlined FIFA shady inner workings for the FBI, 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:47.160 mapping out years of corruption. He not only connected the dots, 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:52.000 Blazer showed federal agents how soccer system of illegal payments 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:55.760 were made and who made him now. The FBI wanted 0:23:55.760 --> 0:24:00.359 Blazer to record his conversations with dodgy soccer officials, but 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:05.040 there was just one problem. Blazer was physically too big 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:08.680 to wear a wire. When he moved, the wire disconnected 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:11.960 and his sweat threatened to short circuit the listing device. 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:15.800 I swear I'm not making this up. The FBI instead 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:19.440 came up with another plan and inserted a microphone inside 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:23.119 a small key fob. The idea was he would place 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:27.399 his keys on the table during a conversation. Blazer hated 0:24:27.400 --> 0:24:31.640 the idea. I mean, he really loathed it. He argued 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:35.600 and fought with his FBI handlers. He insisted it was 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:39.159 beneath a man of his importance and taste to toss 0:24:39.280 --> 0:24:43.920 keys on a table, which, considering the types of places 0:24:43.960 --> 0:24:49.000 he frequented, expensive New York steakhouses and Michelin Star type restaurants, 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:55.280 it wasn't exactly wrong. And yet as Blazer sat down 0:24:55.320 --> 0:24:57.760 at a table and a five star restaurant in London 0:24:57.840 --> 0:24:59.800 and the closing days of the two thousand and t 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:03.600 of Summer Olympics with Jose Avila, the same man Jeffrey 0:25:03.600 --> 0:25:07.760 Webb would later squeeze, they're the key fob sat waiting 0:25:07.760 --> 0:25:10.960 for the two crooks to talk. Avila had been at 0:25:11.000 --> 0:25:14.199 the center of soccer corruption ever since he founded his 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:18.800 sports marketing company, Traffic Group. The Brazilian Mogul started paying 0:25:18.840 --> 0:25:23.200 bribes in the late eighties and never stopped regularly doling 0:25:23.240 --> 0:25:25.520 out cash to win the rights to organize some of 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:30.000 FIFA's premiere events, including Conka Caps Gold Cup Tournament and 0:25:30.119 --> 0:25:35.080 come Bols Copa America. Advertisers and broadcasters who wanted deals 0:25:35.080 --> 0:25:39.000 with the coveted Copa America and Copa du Brazil tournaments 0:25:39.280 --> 0:25:43.639 had to go through traffic because they had exclusive marketing rights. 0:25:44.520 --> 0:25:48.280 That's from a CNN investigation. By the way, among the 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:51.840 many FIFA officials, a Vila bribed or Jack Warner and 0:25:51.920 --> 0:25:56.119 Chuck Blazer. At first, the bribes were relatively small, a 0:25:56.160 --> 0:26:00.280 few hundred thousand dollars, but as the advertising revenue rule, 0:26:00.840 --> 0:26:06.199 so did the payoffs. Byteen avlan Co conspirators had agreed 0:26:06.240 --> 0:26:08.840 to pay one d million dollars in bribes for a 0:26:08.880 --> 0:26:14.600 COPA Medica contract spread among eleven different FIFA officials. As 0:26:14.640 --> 0:26:17.240 Blazer and a Vela sat chatting that summer day in 0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:21.359 two thousand and twelve, Blazer pressed Avila to talk about 0:26:21.400 --> 0:26:24.640 a six hundred thousand dollar payment the Brazilian had made 0:26:24.680 --> 0:26:28.560 to Blazer back in two thousand and three. Blazer had 0:26:28.560 --> 0:26:32.639 requested the money years earlier as a loan. It was 0:26:32.680 --> 0:26:35.480 the type of loan both men knew would never get 0:26:35.520 --> 0:26:39.080 paid back. As they sat there in London talking, the 0:26:39.160 --> 0:26:43.679 fob recorded every word. A Villa said he couldn't remember 0:26:43.720 --> 0:26:48.920 the payment. He stalled suspicious maybe, but he promised Blazer 0:26:48.960 --> 0:26:53.040 he would look into it. The Brazilian had avoided implicating 0:26:53.119 --> 0:26:57.440 himself for now, But Blazer had told the FBI all 0:26:57.520 --> 0:27:00.840 about how a Vela operated, and now the FEDS were 0:27:00.880 --> 0:27:09.920 tracking the moguls every move. So who is Jose a Vila? 0:27:11.400 --> 0:27:14.159 At sixty nine years old, a Vila had built a 0:27:14.280 --> 0:27:17.480 fortune buying and selling the rights to broadcast soccer games. 0:27:18.040 --> 0:27:21.240 He had almost sold his stake in Traffic Group, but 0:27:21.320 --> 0:27:24.240 when the two thousand and eight financial crisis hit, his 0:27:24.480 --> 0:27:29.959 two hundred and eighty million dollar paid a just disappeared overnight. Now, 0:27:30.240 --> 0:27:33.080 five years later, he was once again ready to get out. 0:27:33.680 --> 0:27:36.760